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Friday, December 11, 2009

Happy YouTube Hanuka

Regardless of how you spell it, Hanuka/Khanike/Chanukka begins tonight at sunset. In honor of the holiday I thought I would share a few videos from YouTube

Whether you know him as "The Hairy Hound from Budapest" in the musical My Fair Lady, as Fiddler on the Roof's Tevye, as Worf's adoptive father from Star Trek: The Next Generation, or any other of his numerous acting roles, he released several albums of folk songs in the 50s and 60s, and he was a co-founder of the Newport Folk Festival with Pete Seeger and George Wein. Here's Theodore Bikel singing a holiday song:

In 1972 Don Mclean, reeling from the effects of fame from his hit single American Pie, wrote a song:My world is aconstant confusionMy mind is prepared to attackMy past, a persuasive illusionI'm watchin' the future it's black

What does this have to do with Chanukah? The name of the song: Dreidel (It hit #21 on the US charts)

The year I struggled to celebrate Khanike without a menorah (see Wordless Wednesday entry) I could have also used the method suggested in this video

There's not much I can say about this strange song, except that it does provide a small amount of background to the holiday. The Hanukkah Dreidel Song (courtesy of Chabad.org)

A few weekends ago I helped judge some debate rounds at a tournament hosted by my high school alma mater. Here's a video of a Rabbi debating himself in the style of many high school debaters on a controversial topic when it comes to Jewish holidays:

And finally, here's the LeeVees, trying to decide how to spell Channukkahh. (Or is it Janucá with a silent J?)

Here's a list of now 145 videos including all of the above, and more!(If you are reading this on Facebook, you're not going to see any of the videos above. Click on the "View Original Post" link at the bottom of the post.)